Need some serious input

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 29 Jan 2010 Posts: 4

I'm not sure if this post belongs here, but I need some help, and I figure let me ask the pros. I have a dumba$$ brother in law who was scammed and just refuses to believe it. He has already been hosed for $3500.00 and I just want to show him some input so maybe he will stop sending his money. Please read and give feedback. Again, I apologize if this does not belong here.

About two weeks ago, he found a motorcycle (brand new R1) online at alibaba for a "great, unheard of" price of $2500.00. He contacted them and just couldn't believe that he was getting such a good deal. He went and Western Unioned some dude in the UK $2500.00. That afternoon, he received an email from the scammer stating that his boss would not let him ship out just one bike, he would have to ship them in bulk and pay for another 5 (and they would send him one for free), so go ahead and send another $10,000.00 as payment. At that point, he was in contact with a fake person (again, he thought they were real), and told them to send a refund. After bantering back and forth, they said they would refund him in 30 days. He believed them.

Bring us to today. It's been a week since he lost the money. He hasn't heard a peep. He gets an email today stating that they are shipping the bike, and he needs to pay $1,000.00 to the company's boss to cover the "custom fees, port taxes and shipping". Soooo, he goes and sends them the money. (I KNOW!). And they tell him his bike will be shipped to his door at 4:45pm tomorrow. They even gave him a tracking number and a website. The website/company name was cyanzar. I have googled and checked, and the website is for shipping, but looks as fake as they come. This cannot be real.

Before this idiot sends these people any more money, maybe if I get some feedback from you all confirming that this is indeed a scam, he will finally believe me. I have tried telling him that this is a scam, I've tried showing him this site, I've tried telling him that he is being hosed, but he just refuses to believe it.

Thank you for your input and again, I apologize if this does not belong here. Thank you!!

(PS. I love your site and I'm working on my very first scambait as we speak. Yay!)

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 6:28 am

Hi sweetrevenge1005 and welcome to Eater. I'm really sorry to hear about what has brought you here. I don't know what it's going to take for your brother in law to believe that he's being scammed. Have you gone onto Scamwarners with him? It's great that you're helping him and I hope that he comes to his senses soon.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 29 Jan 2010 Posts: 4

Thank you for your response. After checking out that site, looks like I should have posted there. I've registered, I'm just waiting on confirmation, and they want parental consent? Which is weird, because I'm a grown up. Anyhow, as soon as they confirm my membership, I will repost there. Thank you!!

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:26 am

Good luck sweetrevenge. And yes, the shipping company seems a bit dodgy. I only got one proper hit on google. They should have a lot of customer feedback/partner hits.

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 8:24 am

The shipping company's site is most probably as fake as Cher's face.

A shipping company showing not a single contact reference (phone, address, email addy) doesn't look too confident too me.

I managed to get the WhoIs info, which seems to have been queried hundreds of times the last 24 hours:

Registration Service Provided By: SPIRITDOMAINS/IAREGISTRY
Contact: +1.8006867671
Website: http://www.spiritdomains.com

Domain Name: cyanzar.com

Expiry Date: 04-Nov-2010
Days Left for Expiry: 271
Record Creation Date: 04-Nov-2009
Domain Status: Active

RegistrantContact Details
Name CYANZAR LIMITED
Company Rgd NO: 04986032
Email Address [email protected]
Address 6TH FLOOR QUEENS HOUSE
City LINCOLNS INN FIELDS
State/Region/Province London
Zip WC2A 3LJ
Country GB
Tel No. +44.871503154
Fax No.+44.8447743672

I'm not sure how real all this info is, but usually, whois info should contain at least one name of a real person.

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 11:30 am

It's 100% a scam.

I'm also active at scamwarners and have dealt with literally hundreds of the same type of scam as you describe.

As for the address on the WhoIs? Lincoln Inns Fields is one of the most exclusive pieces of real estate in the UK. It is not the sort of place you would find a shipping agency dealing with vehicle export.
Also, if you Google a few lines from the website you will see that they also appear word for word on another fake shipping company's site - www.otgcargo.com

If your relative still has a problem believing that he is being scammed, ask him to register on scamwarners.

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 12:46 pm

Is otgcargo.com fake? Could be, but I'm not sure. This site has telephone numbers and an address (be it a PO box), and the domain has been registered >10 years ago. Registration information seems more genuine too.

Looks to me like Cyanzar copied the full web layout from otgcargo.

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 1:13 pm

^^ Could be genuine. I couldn't open the site so assumed it was fake.

Doesn't matter either way though. The fact that it exists shows the other site is a fake.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 29 Jan 2010 Posts: 4

wokabo wrote:

The shipping company's site is most probably as fake as Cher's face.

A shipping company showing not a single contact reference (phone, address, email addy) doesn't look too confident too me.

I managed to get the WhoIs info, which seems to have been queried hundreds of times the last 24 hours:

Registration Service Provided By: SPIRITDOMAINS/IAREGISTRY
Contact: +1.8006867671
Website: http://www.spiritdomains.com

Domain Name: cyanzar.com

Expiry Date: 04-Nov-2010
Days Left for Expiry: 271
Record Creation Date: 04-Nov-2009
Domain Status: Active

RegistrantContact Details
Name CYANZAR LIMITED
Company Rgd NO: 04986032
Email Address [email protected]
Address 6TH FLOOR QUEENS HOUSE
City LINCOLNS INN FIELDS
State/Region/Province London
Zip WC2A 3LJ
Country GB
Tel No. +44.871503154
Fax No.+44.8447743672

I'm not sure how real all this info is, but usually, whois info should contain at least one name of a real person.

The inquries were from me and my husband, I'm sure. We were trying to figure out where this place was. It leads back to a British Hospitality House or something, and I even emailed them to get a confirmation from them that they are NOT a shipping company. I have used a lot of energy trying to show him that this is a scam. Sometimes, you can't help people if they won't help themselves. Today will come and go. There will not be a delivery of a bike, and he will get another email asking for more money.

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 3:18 pm

Quote:

just couldn't believe that he was getting such a good deal

He was right the first time. Why would anyone sell a $10k motorcycle for $2,500? If it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck.....

They will keep finding new excuses to get just one more payment until he finally comes to his senses and admits its a scam.

The bike/car/whatever is always in another country, if its not a fake shipping firm its a fake escrow service. If you can teach your mate how to find and read an Ip adress (see Help Hints & Tips) from an email, he may well find that the emails from the seller/shipper/boss etc all come from the same computer, that should convince him.

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 4:21 pm

Slightlyoutofit wrote:

^^ Could be genuine. I couldn't open the site so assumed it was fake.

Doesn't matter either way though. The fact that it exists shows the other site is a fake.

It opens for me. You're right the other one is fake, but we have to be careful about deciding what's fake and what's not, you wouldn't want to cause a genuine site to get shut down.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 05 Feb 2010 Posts: 3

this is sweetrevenges husband, I have called otgcargo and tried to talk to their it department. They were on luinch and i have to call back in an hour and update as i progress.

On the other hand i used to do alot of international shipping from the USA. I told my family member that there is 2 ways to pay for customs. 1. the so called package is prepaid and will be delivered to your house or you will pick up at a cargo office. 2. The shipping is not prepaid and is COD. You pay customs fees, taxes etc to customs and the carrier for costs. I told him under no circumstance send the $$ back to the so called seller which he did like a dumb ass.

Needless to say he deserved being scammed since he didnt listen to me. Who am i? its not like i deal with shipping companies on a daily basis or anything like that.

This goes back to an old saying " you can lead a horse to water...."

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:09 pm

While I agree he should have listened to you, I don't think anyone deserves to fall for these scammers. While your family member may need to learn a lesson, it also emboldens the lads by getting the money into continuing their scams. Hopefully you can at the very least stop them from losing any further money to them.

Another thing to keep in mind is to warn him about recovery scams, where a lad may contact him in the future claiming to be a lawyer who can recover his money... for a fee of course.

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:20 pm

^^^Ah yes, You can lead a horse to water, but you cant convice him he isnt being scammed. I remember that old saying. Thankfully your family member isnt a horse. Best advice I can offer that hasnt been mentioned already is make sure you show support to your family member, the scammers often use isolation tactics to convince the victim that family and friends are against them and that the scammer is the only one telling the truth. Take some time to calmly explain that its a common scam, it gets all to many people unfortunatly. The chances of getting his money back are slim to none, and that he should walk away now. I understand your frustration, but calling him dumbass and having a I told you so attitude will only help the scammer sink the claws in even more. Show sympathy and support and things will be easier on your side. Theres alot of pyscology used by the scammers and sometimes just wanting to believe is enough to get victims to send more money.

And of course head over to www.scamwarners.com and ask for some help there. Those guys are the pros when it comes to this stuff. We are more of the revenge department.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 29 Jan 2010 Posts: 4

Ahhh, yes. My hubby is very emotionally involved, as it is his side of the family. We are giving support to the situation the best that we possibly can. We have warned him and warned him, and that is why I chose to put it on a public forum, so that maybe if he reads some other input of complete strangers seeing it's a scam, he will see it for once and for all. Since he is "choosing" to ignore those closest to him. After this latest bout, one can only hope that he is done with this and has learned his lesson. I think that he is trying to right the wrong he made from sending the money in the first place. He has a lot of guilt and we will help him the best we can get through it. Thanks for all your help on this. I'm still waiting for Scamwarners to approve my resgistration. I think they still think I'm a minor Sad

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:39 pm

I'm not surprised that he's emotionally involved, no one likes people to take advantage of others, especially their own family members.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 05 Feb 2010 Posts: 3

i talked with the owner of otgcargo and the site is legitmate. The had this problem about 3 years ago with someone stealing their website except the last scam was for unlocked cell phones.

I will call my relative a dumb ass because he really is. He can not get passed this "DEAL OF A LIFETIME" i told him about how they use their words, shipping scamming, and he still did not believe it. It sucks that he is so gullible to even think the item is being delivered today

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 8:25 pm

Tell him to Google the email address that the buyer gave. Then tell him to Google a couple of sentences in the buyer's first email.

Quite often, the address gets flagged by anti-scam sites because it's sent out literally thousands of times and then ends up being reported.
The sentences are normally part of a "script". The lad almost certainly uses a pre-written format for his first email, so even if there's no hit on the address, there may be a hit on the content.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 05 Feb 2010 Posts: 3

thats the thing, he was not initially contacted. He stumbled across it on alibabba and contacted them

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

^^^ The scammers do set up ads as well. Even then, the first emails the scammer sent after contact was made will likely be scripted.

Re: ScamWarners. I'm an administrator there. The system thinks you're a minor because you choose the wrong button when registering. Wink

I've activated the account for you, you are all set to log in and post.